When young people are provided with the means to effectively reach political decision makers and influence them, there is hope to make them participate in politics and to revitalize democracy. This paper presents the conceptual design of an Internet-based system intended to enable such participation; the presentation is illustrated with the case…

Describes a study that used survey and focus group data to examine differences in perception of online group process and development between college students in Mexico and the United States. Discusses language, power distance, gender differences, collectivist versus individualist tendencies, conflict, social presence, time frame, and technical…

Argues that community colleges should require students to own laptop computers, and that costs should be calculated into the need for financial aid so that no one will be deterred from owning laptops. States that requiring students to own laptops dramatically reduces technology costs for colleges. (NB)

This study details our efforts in examining alternatives to inservice technology workshops according to the perspectives of teachers from two school districts located in the southeastern region of the United States. Our initial survey (68% return ratio) and final survey (65% return ratio) asked teachers to respond to the following four areas…

This article provides an overview of Systemic Initiatives in the Australian States and Territories. This updated overview acknowledges the help and information provided by key contacts whom the authors contacted from each of the Australian State and Territory government education systems. In addition, the role of the Ministerial Council for…

Hypermedia has long been considered to have great potential to support educational tasks and applications. Many success stories of hypermedia support in education have been reported. Much of this work has been done in the context of traditional closed hypermedia systems rather than more contemporary open hypermedia systems. Developing hypermedia…

This paper reports on issues in carrying out research into online discussion. The context is a study of a distance learning module within an MBA program. The module required students to tackle problems based on real life scenarios within small online groups. Students were studying part time and shared similar professional backgrounds. The research…

This case study explores the question of whether school personnel are using the technology available to communicate effectively with the members of their communities? A plethora of communications technology is now accessible to schools, but the question remains whether it is being used to connect with the different members of one's school…

This paper investigates the impact that a teacher's virtual presence--or lack thereof--has on students' chat behavior with regard to error correction, uptake, target language use, and on-task behavior. The data come from beginning German students engaged in pair and small-group chatting activities at a major American university. Transcripts from…

This paper explores the importance of interaction in the online teaching environment and the important role of staff development in developing teacher presence online. Professionally developing staff to use information and communication technologies is viewed from the standpoint of diffusion of innovation, moving from early adopters to mainstream…

Web-based collaboration calls for professional skills and competences to the benefit of the quality of the collaboration and its output. Within this framework, educational virtual environments may provide a means for training upon these skills and in particular the collaborative ones. On the basis of the existing technological means such training…

Apart from studying students' interaction in Web-based environments in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), it is essential to recognize the importance of the contextual setting in which learning takes place. This study examines the role of face-to-face encounters as contextual support in an international teacher education course…

The concept of knowledge building communities has not traditionally been associated with agricultural extension, but is one which has the potential to increase the rate of adoption of best management practices by the industry. A potentially important mechanism to facilitate knowledge building is information and communication technology (ICT);…

The spread and utilization of information technology in the human services is examined using innovation diffusion theory. This examination is contextualized within the values basis of social work. Literature from the human services, the business sector, and the social sciences regarding the role of information technology is used to promote a…

Napster, a program for sharing MP3 files, has transformed the way music files are shared over the Internet. In its heyday, anyone looking for free music just had to search Napster's database for the artists or songs they wanted and download them for free. Because of its operations, Napster was successfully sued for violation of copyright and has…